Planning a trip? Those who love to travel know the essence of all travel is about you and your enjoyment. Travelers know that the destination is a major part in planning a trip, experiencing and delving deeper into an unfamiliar places, people and culture is paramount.

Expand your horizons and set your sight to the Philippines, an off the beaten path travel site! An undiscovered paradise made of thousands of islands and white sand beaches all around! A tiny dot in the map of the world, and yet a haven for travelers, backpackers, retirees and even passersby.

It offers awesome tourist attractions, magnificent beaches, hot spring resorts, colorful festivals, hundreds of scenic spots and world-class hotels and facilities. Not to mention the tropical climate, the affordable prices as well as the friendly and hospitable, English-speaking people! You will be glad you came, and we’re sure, you WILL come back for more FUN in the Philippines!

IFUGAO PROVINCE

Photo from: wikipedia.org

Photo from: wayfaring.info

Ifugao is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. The province of Ifugao is located in a mountainous region characterized by rugged terrain, river valleys, and massive forests.

The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras and Banaue Rice Terraces are the main tourist attractions in the province. These 2000-year-old terraces were carved into the mountains, without the aid of machinery, to provide level steps where the natives can plant rice. In 1995, they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Photo from: rice-terraces.com

Ifugao was formerly a part of the old Mountain Province. It was created as an independent province on June 18, 1966 by virtue of Republic Act No. 4695, otherwise known as the “Division Law of Mountain Province”. Under this law, Mountain Province was divided into four (4) provinces namely: Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao and Mountain Province.

Ifugao People and Culture

Photo from: tripideas.org

Ifugao refers to the people, their dialect and the province they live in.

The Ifugaos live in the mountains in Luzon in the Philippines. They are known as an independent, agricultural society. They speak the various Ifugao dialect like Tuwali, ayangan but they can also speak Filipino vernacular dialect like Ilokano and Tagalog. Many Ifugaos, especially in HINGYON, are fluent in English as well.

Photo from: cgpinoy.org

This people prefer to be called Ifugaos as opposed to the more generic and less accurate Igorot term that includes all the peoples of the Cordillera Region.

The Ifugaos, immortalized by their magnificent rice terraces, inhabit the rugged terrain of the extensive Cordillera Mountain ranges of Central Northern Luzon. They have developed and maintained a distinct culture which until recently has resisted outside influences.

Photo from: trekearth.com

The terraces are vastly found in the province of Ifugao and the Ifugao people have been its caretakers. Ifugao culture revolves around rice and the culture displays an elaborate array of rice culture feasts linked with agricultural rites from rice cultivation to rice consumption. Harvest season generally calls for thanksgiving feasts while the concluding harvest rites tungo or tungul (the day of rest) entail a strict taboo of any agricultural work. Partaking of the bayah (rice beer), rice cakes, and betel nut constitutes an indelible practice during the festivities and ritual activities.

Photo from: univie.ac.at

Photo from: migrationology.com

The Ifugao people practice traditional farming spending most of their labor at their terraces and forest lands while occasionally tending to root crop cultivation. The Ifugaos have also been known to culture edible shells, fruit trees, and other vegetables which has been exhibited among Ifugaos for generations. The building of the rice terraces, work of blanketing walls with stones and earth which is designed to draw water from a main irrigation canal above the terrace clusters. Indigenous rice terracing technologies have been identified with the Ifugao’s rice terraces such as their knowledge of water irrigation, stonework, earthwork and terrace maintenance. As their source of life and art, the rice terraces have sustained and shaped the lives of the community members. – wikipedia.org